scientist
nounUK /ˈsaɪəntɪst/ · US /ˈsaɪəntəst/
Etymology Coined by English philosopher and historian of science William Whewell in March 1834 in an anonymous review of Mary Somerville's book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences in the Quarterly Review as a suggested replacement for, and later seriously introduced by him in 1840 (see the quotation) as a more precise substitute for, the terms natural philosopher and man of science. Modeled after artist, from the Latin stem scientia (“knowledge”) + -ist.
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One whose activities make use of the scientific method to answer questions regarding the measurable universe. A scientist may be involved in original research, or make use of the results of the research of others.
- As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have called him a physicist. We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say, that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter, or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist.1840, William Whewell, “Aphorisms Concerning the Language of Science. Aphorism XVI. In the Composition and Inflexion of Technical Terms, Philological Analogies are to be Preserved if Possible, but Modified According to Scientific Convenience.”, in The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon Their History. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: J. and J. J. Deighton, →OCLC, paragraph 4(3), page cxiii:
- Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.2012 January, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, United States: Sigma Xi, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60:
1 more example
- The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US Rules Human Genes Can’t Be Patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, →ISSN, page 10:
- Derived terms
32 terms
bench scientist, bioscientist, broscientist, chief scientist, citizen scientist, creation scientist, crime scientist, criminal scientist, cyberscientist, data scientist, environmental scientist, e-scientist, ethnoscientist, food scientist, gentleman scientist, geroscientist, glycoscientist, histoscientist, hydroscientist, mad scientist, metascientist, nanoscientist, neuroscientist, nonscientist, omniscientist, parascientist, political scientist, remote sensing scientist, rocket scientist, scientess, social scientist, soil scientist- Related terms
- science, sciencier, scienciest, scienciness, sciency, scientian, scientific, scientifical, scientifically, scientificalness, scientificness, scientism, scientistic, scientistical, scientistically, peer review, :Category:en:Scientists, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class IV § 463. Experiment, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class IV § 476. Reasoning, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class IV § 492. Scholar
- Hypernyms
- person
- Hyponyms
25 terms
biotechnologist, citizen scientist, computer scientist, data scientist, food scientist, geoscientist, natural scientist, pseudoscientist, rocket scientist, social scientist, physicist, chemist, biologist, earth scientist, psychologist, sociologist, anthropologist, science, education, scholar, researcher, theoretician, theorist, experimentalist, academic degree